title: [Drugs scene in Poland from a forensic toxicologist's view].
abstract: This paper reviews the current use agents influencing the central nervous system. Among them are new synthetic psychoactive drugs, "legal highs" (herbal and synthetic), anabolic steroids, untypical adulterants to classic drugs of abuse, unusual mixtures, dietary supplements, energising drinks and substances similarly acting to alcohol. All these agents were characterized regarding to their acting on human organism, impairing on driving ability and legal regulations that means the Drug Addiction Counteraction Act of 29 July, 2005, the Road Traffic Act of 20 June, 1997 and the Ministry of Health Decree concerning the list of substances acting similarly to alcohol, and the conditions and the methods for carrying out examinations for the presence of these substances in the human body of 11 June 2003. The variety of abused, used and misused agents leads to the application of very sensitive analytical methods of their detection (screening), identification (confirmation) and quantification. Attention has been drawn to some specific difficulties caused currently by the identification of active components of "legal highs" in biological fluids, which influences the diagnosis of poisoning by these substances. The inconsistence of legal regulations allowing for arbitrary interpretation of the results of toxicological analyses concerning even forensic purposes has been critically discussed. It has been proposed that the manner of legal controlling of new psychoactive agents should be changed.
authors.affiliation: Instytut Ekspertyz Sadowych w Krakowie. mkala@ies.krakow.pl
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kała
mesh_terms: D053593:Forensic Toxicology; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs / Q000633:toxicity; D011044:Poland / Q000453:epidemiology; D055553:Prescription Drugs / Q000633:toxicity; D055656:Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000633:toxicity; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000379:methods*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*
chemical_list: D013287:Illicit Drugs; D055553:Prescription Drugs; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs